Sr Manager, Network Management

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Date: Feb 24, 2026

Location: Chicago, IL, US, 60607

Company: McDonald's Corporation

Company Description: 

McDonald’s growth strategy, Accelerating the Arches, encompasses all aspects of our business as the leading global omni-channel restaurant brand. As the consumer landscape shifts we are using our competitive advantages to further strengthen our brand. One of our core growth strategies is to Double Down on the 3Ds (Delivery, Digital and Drive Thru). McDonald’s will accelerate technology innovation so 65M+ customers a day will experience a fast, easy experience, whether at one of our 25,000 and growing Drive thrus, through McDelivery, dine-in or takeaway.  

McDonald’s Global Technology is here to power tomorrow’s feel-good moments.   

That’s why you’ll find us at the forefront of transformative technology, exploring new and innovative ways to serve our millions of customers and spread happiness one delicious Hot Fudge Sundae-dipped fry at a time. Using AI, robotics and emerging tech, we’re digitizing the Golden Arches. Combine that with our unparalleled global scale, and we’re reshaping all areas of the business, industry and every community that is home to a McDonald’s restaurant. We face complex tech challenges every day. But that’s where our diverse and talented teams come in. They’re made up of the best and brightest from all over the globe, and they thrive in the space where feel-good meets fast-paced.   

Check out the McDonald’s  Global Technology Technical Blog to learn how technology and our global team are directly enabling the Accelerating the Arches strategy.  

Department Overview

The Sr. Manager, Network Engineering (Global) is a senior technical and people leader responsible for global engineering readiness, market onboarding, and deployment enablement for the Global Restaurant Network Transformation (GRNT).

This role provides global design authority, technical governance, and engineering leadership, while enabling regional and market teams to successfully deploy and operate the global network standard. The Sr. Manager leads a globally distributed team of network engineers and remains effectively engaged in technical assessments, architecture validation, automation strategy, and complex problem management.

The role partners closely with Global Network Operations, Product, Deployment, Security, and Regional IT teams to ensure global consistency, security, scalability, and operational excellence—while allowing for controlled local flexibility where required.

Duties

Global People Leadership & Engineering Organization

  • Lead and develop a globally distributed team of Network Engineers and senior technical resources, including:
  • Global and regional workload planning and prioritization
  • Performance management, coaching, and career development across geographies
  • Succession planning and capability building aligned to GRNT and future network needs
  • Establish global engineering standards, operating models, and ways of working.
  • Build a culture of global accountability, automation-first thinking, and continuous improvement.

Global Market Onboarding & Technical Governance

  • Own global market onboarding and technical readiness assessments for GRNT adoption across regions.
  • Serve as global design authority to ensure market solutions align with:
  • Global network architecture
  • Security and compliance requirements
  • Observability and operability standards
  • Govern market exceptions, ensuring deviations are deliberate, documented, and minimized.
  • Enable early and ongoing engagement with markets to improve readiness, sequencing, and deployment success.

Global Deployment Enablement & Engineering Readiness

  • Provide global engineering leadership for GRNT deployment preparation and execution, including:
  • Architecture and configuration validation
  • Standard compliance and security readiness
  • Risk identification and mitigation prior to deployment
  • Act as a senior customer concern point during critical or multi-market deployments.
  • Ensure deployment lessons learned are captured globally and fed back into:
  • Standards and reference architectures
  • Automation and tooling
  • Market onboarding playbooks

Global Network Operations Partnership & Problem Management

  • Partner with Global Network Operations to lead problem management and systemic remediation across markets.
  • Own engineering responses to cross-market, recurring, or high-impact network issues.
  • Drive long-term corrective actions that improve global stability, resilience, and operational efficiency.

Network Automation & Platform-Level Continuous Improvement

  • Define and lead the global network automation strategy, focused on:
  • Zero-touch provisioning and configuration standardization
  • Deployment and change automation
  • Reduction of manual effort and error at scale
  • Ensure automation is embedded into global standards and operational workflows.
  • Partner with product, operations, and platform teams to prioritize automation that delivers measurable global impact.

Hands-On Global Technical Leadership

  • Maintain active technical engagement in large-scale, globally distributed network environments, including:
  • Architecture and design reviews
  • Standards definition and technical decision-making
  • Sophisticated troubleshooting and vendor engagement across regions
  • Provide senior technical leadership across:
  • WAN, LAN, and SD-WAN
  • Network security and SASE architectures
  • Cloud-adjacent and edge networking

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in Network Engineering supporting global or multi-market environments
  • 5+ years leading engineering teams across regions or time zones
  • Strong hands-on experience with:
  • Juniper networking platforms
  • Palo Alto security platforms
  • Demonstrated experience leading global market onboarding, large-scale deployments, or transformation programs
  • Proven success delivering network automation for scale, reliability, and consistency
  • Strong ability to influence and lead across regions, cultures, vendors, and operating models

Preferred / Nice to Have

  • Experience operating within global standards / local execution models
  • Background in restaurant, retail, or branch-based global networks
  • Experience working with global managed service providers and multi-vendor ecosystems
  • Exposure to observability, AIOps, and platform-based network operations

Compensation

Bonus Eligible: YES

Long - Term Incentive: YES

Benefits Eligible: YES

Salary Range

The expected salary range for this role is $152,678.00 - $190,847.00 per year
 
The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors.

Additional Information: 

Benefits eligible: This position offers health and welfare benefits, a 401(k) plan, adoption assistance program, educational assistance program, flexible ways of working, and time off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and vacation/PTO). Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on job classification and length of employment.  

Bonus eligible: This position is eligible for a bonus, calculated based on individual and company performance. 

Long term Incentive eligible: This position is eligible for stock or other equity grants pursuant to McDonald’s long-term incentive plan. 

McDonald’s is an equal opportunity employer committed to the diversity of our workforce. We promote an inclusive work environment that creates feel-good moments for everyone. McDonald’s provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities as part of the application or hiring process or to perform the essential functions of their job. If you need assistance accessing or reading this job posting or otherwise feel you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please contact mcdhrbenefits@us.mcd.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis. 

McDonald’s provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (including pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, disability status, medical condition, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, protected military or veteran status, citizenship status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. 

Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment. 


Nearest Major Market: Chicago